"I'm updating my reports and having phone conferences with the parents. They'll let me know if there's a problem."

"I wouldn't think that would be enough for you. Aren't you a little bored?"

"Why? Olivia is my best friend. She never bores me. Particularly when she needs me."

"But you've avoided the crisis. Does she really still need you?"

"I'm staying with Olivia, Lynch. Drop it."

"Consider it dropped. I just want you to know that she may not be the only one who needs you. I've become very attached to you."

"Because I'm the only one who barks at you?"

"Among other things. You tend to escalate matters in all kinds of directions. There were moments during the action last night when I thought about you at the most unlikely times."

She stiffened. "What action?"

"But you're not interested, are you? You left it all in my court."

"You want me to ask you again? Screw you, Lynch. You'll tell me anyway. Why else did you call?"

He chuckled. "You're right. Out of the generosity of my heart, I didn't want to leave you completely out of the loop. I wouldn't do that to you when you've worked so hard to find the answers."

She wanted to slap him. "And did you find one of those answers last night?"

"I found one of the question marks. I located the piece of carpet that was cut out of Stedler's apartment."

She tensed. "And?"

"No blood. Another kind of stain."

"What kind of-"

"I've got to hang up now. I'm at the FBI Forensic Lab, and Sienna Deever just came in with the report on the carpet." He hung up.

Kendra felt a surge of sheer frustration as she pressed the disconnect. It was exactly what Lynch wanted her to feel, she realized. He knew exactly how to tease and manipulate her. In the last few days, they had grown to know each other better than some people did who had been together for years. There were still blank pages in their a.s.sociation, but what they did know made for a complex and edgy relationship. He had realized that she would want to know everything there was to know about that carpet, then left her hanging.

She should have been at that lab to hear that report herself instead of having to rely on Lynch, dammit.

And that was precisely what Lynch had wanted her to think.

He had figured that she wouldn't be able to stand being shut out of a crucial piece of the investigation. His instinct had been totally accurate, and that was another reason for her to try to separate herself from him.

And why was she standing here letting him do this to her? Lynch could be a Pied Piper, and he was trying to lead her down the path he wanted her to take.

And he was making her want to take that path, too.

She couldn't listen to that siren call. She was doing the right thing. She had a duty to Olivia.

Go to h.e.l.l, Lynch.

She started down the hall toward Olivia's room.

Or was she blaming Lynch for her own intense drive and curiosity? She had always hated leaving anything unfinished. Maybe that siren call was deep within herself ...

FBI Forensic Lab "Deja vu," Lynch said, looking at the carpet sc.r.a.p on the same bench where he'd seen its twin only a couple days before. FBI forensics specialist, Dustin Freen, once again addressed the a.s.sembled agents, which that morning included Lynch, Griffin, and Sienna Deever.

Freen showed a spectrometer image on the monitor overhead. "No surprise here, but the piece that Lynch provided is most definitely from the same batch as the rest of the carpet in Agent Stedler's apartment."

"Good work," Griffin said to Lynch. "But I'd feel better if we had a statement on the record by the man who replaced it."

"He's currently unavailable. But he gave me his statement," Lynch said. "Eagerly."

"And, I'm sure, under no duress."

"Guilty conscience, I guess."

Griffin pointed to the yellow stain, and asked Freen, "Any idea what this is yet?"

Freen turned to Sienna. "Do you want to take this one?"

She nodded and turned to the other two agents. "We're not finished yet, but we've already run the stain through several tests. Electron microscope a.n.a.lysis, Raman Spectral Comparator, and we're sending out for others." She glanced at Lynch and Griffin. "It's very ... exciting. It's the same substance we've been finding in the murder victims' systems."

"Holy s.h.i.t," Griffin said. "Are you sure?"

"Positive." Her eyes were glittering in her taut face. "At least a substance that we've been finding. It may be interacting with something else, but this is essentially what we've been finding in the victims' organ tissues."

"That's incredible," Lynch said. "But you still haven't answered the million-dollar question. What the h.e.l.l is this stuff?"

She shook her head. "We still don't know."

"When will you know?" Griffin asked.

"Difficult to say. We've sent it out to the labs we think will have the best chance at identifying it quickly. This is like nothing we've seen. Even though we can break down most of the elements, we still don't know the reason or purpose of the formula."

"Can't you even make a guess what we're dealing with?" Griffin asked.

"We agree that it does seem to possess some corticosteroid properties, but even that is preliminary. And your guess is as good as ours as to how so much of it ended up on the floor of Agent Stedler's apartment."

Lynch stared at the large yellow splotch, which was now reminding him of a figure from a disturbing Rorschach figure. The stain looked like a pair of hideously thin lips, twisted into a maniacal grin, taunting him, baiting him.

Hmm, better keep that one from the agency shrinks.

He turned to Sienna. "Is this toxic? Could it cause the premature aging we've been seeing in the victim's internal organs?"

She grimaced. "Sorry. We need to wait for the lab results. Our preliminary lab results don't suggest it, but right now, I can't absolutely say what effect this stuff would have on the human body."

"But maybe with a little more time..." Freen offered.

"With a little more time, someone else may be dead," Griffin bit out. "I just spent half an hour talking to Lesley Dunn's father about why his little girl is in a metal drawer in the hospital bas.e.m.e.nt. And I didn't have any answers for him." He glanced at Sienna. "Agent Deever, I appreciate your quarterbacking the medical aspect of this case. Your background made you a good choice to interface with the labs and medical community. But we may need to make a change."

She stared at him in disbelief. "Sir?"

"It may be time to bring in someone else with a bit more hands-on laboratory experience. I'm going to talk to Washington about it."

"Sir, you can't. This is my case. The time it would take for someone else to get up to speed would-"

"You'll stay on the case, of course. I'm just saying that we might benefit from a new perspective."

Sienna flushed. "Sir, with all due respect. I don't see how you can justify-"

"Agent Deever, I don't have to justify it at all. At least, not to you. Are we clear?"

Lynch watched Sienna's face as she fought the anger and outrage she was feeling. David against Goliath. He knew exactly how she felt. He also knew that what she said or did in the next fifteen seconds could have an irrevocable impact on her career.

Freen stared uncomfortably at the floor, probably wishing he was somewhere, anywhere else.

Sienna finally drew a deep breath and nodded jerkily. "Yes, sir. Of course."

"Good. We'll discuss this later."

"Yes, sir."

Good girl, Lynch thought. It will only gnaw at your soul for a little while.

Griffin turned toward the door. "Has Lesley Dunn's autopsy been performed yet?"

"Not yet," Sienna said. "It's going to be done later this morning. I'd like to be there ... if you don't mind, sir."

"Of course." Griffin headed for the door. "Call me as soon as you're finished." He disappeared down the hall toward his office.

Lynch watched Sienna rush past him as he went down the corridor toward the elevators. She was heading toward the bathroom as soon as Griffin was out of sight. She was probably going to either cry or punch a wall. He figured Sienna to be a wall puncher.

He'd meant to give her a word of support and encouragement, but she was clearly not in a mood to appreciate the fact that her humiliation had been witnessed. She'd have to cope with it herself.

The incident had brought back bad memories of his own days of working with Griffin. The man ran his own little kingdom and did not like to be challenged or in any way questioned even if it was to clarify his directives.

Rather like another arrogant bureaucrat he knew.

And it was time to give that man a call.

As he reached his car in the parking lot, he pulled out his phone and punched in a number. After a few seconds U.S. a.s.sociate Attorney General Frederick Jamerson answered.

"Jamerson."

"Adam Lynch."

"Lynch ... Where in the h.e.l.l did you get this number? I never give this number out to any-"

"Your cell phone gave it to me. It's scary to think how many state secrets you entrust to that thing. Anyway, sorry for the privacy invasion. I didn't want to wait half a day to talk to you."

"I know that tone. This isn't going to be a pleasant chat, is it?"

"How well you read me, Jamerson."

"I like to think I do, but your daily written reports have been a bit, shall we say, brief and uninformative. It's hard to grasp how you're really feeling about the situation there."

"I'm feeling a little p.i.s.sed off. I hate going into a case blind, and I've had time to mull over that resentment. You didn't tell me the truth. You just pointed me in the right direction and told me to chase down what happened to Stedler. If Stedler is dead, he wasn't killed by some psycho who was afraid of being caught. You know d.a.m.ned well there was more to it than that."

"We didn't know. We have suspected. And I think you may have suspected something of that nature also. You were just intrigued by the a.s.signment. You wanted to probe deeper."

"I guess you also knew that Stedler wasn't being entirely forthcoming with his FBI superiors in this investigation. He chose to hide things from them. Is there any special reason you didn't choose to share those very important tidbits with me?"

Jamerson didn't answer for a long moment. "We live in a political world, Lynch."

"Yes, we do," Lynch said softly. "And sometimes it makes me want to throw up. You're playing games, and I don't know if you're straight, or you're trying to maneuver what's happening to protect your department from some kind of fallout."

"You're being very disrespectful, Lynch."

"And you're taking it, which means that you don't want to have me walk away from this case. Why?"

Another silence. "You're exceptional. And I can deal with you if necessary."

"I'm not dirty, Jamerson."

"I never said you were. But you're willing to take a chance if the situation warrants and, if it's called for, you can be discreet. We've been led to believe that the situation may become toxic in nature."

"'Toxic'? Odd that you should use that word. I just came from a lab where we discussed the possibility of toxic elements. Coincidence?"

"I'm sure that you'll explain that question in your next report. I'm going to hang up now."

"We're not finished. Tell me what's going on."

"What's going on is that you're doing an investigation that has serious implications that may affect my department. You accepted the a.s.signment, and we've been very pleased with your work."

"Don't bulls.h.i.t me. Details, dammit."

"Let's see, I don't want to be totally uncooperative. Will it help if I tell you that it was Stedler who contacted us for help, that he didn't want to go through the Bureau?"

"It helps, but it's not enough. I'd already guessed that. More."

"That's all you're getting. It's your job to supply me with the details."

Lynch held on to his temper by a thread. He wasn't getting anywhere with Jamerson. h.e.l.l, he hadn't really expected to get him to talk.

"Then that's what I'll do," Lynch said. "You bet I'll find out what the h.e.l.l is going on. I'll dig and I'll hunt and I'll find every nasty secret that you or any other of your political cohorts wants me to be discreet about. And when I do, I may or may not report to you."

"My, my, insubordination, Lynch?"